Cosmology and Galaxy Evolution with the SKA

The Southern Pinwheel galaxy, M83, imaged in ultraviolet light (blue and green) and radio emissions at a wavelength of 21 cm (red). The blue and pink pinwheel in the centre is the main stellar disk of the galaxy, and the red extended arms are composed of the neutral hydrogen gas that fuels star formation. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/VLA/MPIA

By Martin Meyer & Chris Blake

The SKA will provide new insights into how galaxies are assembled over time, from the hydrogen gas that fills the universe to the properties of dark matter and dark energy that dominate the large-scale structure of the cosmos.